BRITISH BIRDS. 6 1 



The idea, however, is now quite disproved by the fact 

 that young rooks, reared in confinement and supplied with 

 an abundance of food, so that they have not to work for 

 their living, and do not, also lose their feathers round the 

 base of the bill when they moult fi>r the second time, which 

 is, or should be, conclusive that the denudation is natural, 

 and not the lesult of abrasion. 



The rook, as is well known, builds in companies among 

 the upper branches of lofty trees. The eggs are two or 

 three in number, very rarely more ; they are of a pale 

 green ground colour, spotted with blotches of brown and 

 greenish grey, but vary greatly, even in the same nest. 



It is curious that the rooks begin to repair their old 

 nests, or build new ones, on the first of March regularly 

 every year, as the writer has ascertained from observation 

 in a variety of places extending over a number of years. 

 There is rarel}- a second brood, never, indeed, unless some 

 accident has befallen the first. 



The rook is more vegetarian in its tastes than the 

 preceding species, but, nevertheless, it consumes an im- 

 mense quantity of earthworms, grubs, and other injurious 

 creatures, also small frogs and other reptiles, and occasion- 

 ally a stray or injured small bird. 



It is easily tamed, and is very amusing, but inclined to 

 be mischievous ; indeed, a lady, well known for her 

 appreciation of all the feathered tribes, assured the writer 

 that a tame rook of hers could get through more mischief 

 in a given time than any other creature she had ever met 

 with. 



It is a pity that so much misapprehension as to the 

 habits of the rook and its value to the agriculturist should 

 still exist; that some farmers should continue to poison 

 them wholesale, forgetting the amount of vermin they 

 .destroy, and only noting the comparatively small quantity 



